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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Place Two on All-MAC Team
April 23, 2009 | Women's Tennis
April 23, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - A pair of Bowling Green State University standouts have been named to the 2009 All-Mid-American Conference Women's Tennis Team. Senior Kelsey Jakupcin and sophomore Christine Chiricosta each earned all-league second-team honors. The All-MAC Team and specialty awards were announced at the MAC Championships Banquet, which was held at the Bowen-Thompson Student Union on the BGSU campus.
Both players earn all-conference accolades for the second consecutive year.
Jakupcin, a native of Dublin, Ohio (Bishop Watterson HS), has played primarily at the top singles flight this season, and has teamed with Chiricosta at the number-one doubles flight. Jakupcin has an overall record of 12-17 in singles action, but has gone 9-9 in dual-match action this year.
Chiricosta, who hails from Avon Lake, Ohio (Avon Lake HS), is 20-7 overall in singles play this season, tying her for the best record on the team. She has gone 12-4 in dual-match singles play to date, including a 3-0 mark at the top flight and a 9-4 record at the number-two flight. She went 5-3 in MAC singles action in the regular season.
The Jakupcin/Chiricosta doubles team has posted an overall mark of 19-7, including a 6-1 MAC record, this year. They have combined for a record of 11-3 in dual-match play in '08-09, and are 36-13 as a duo in their careers.
Jakupcin has 68 career singles wins, tying her for 11th in BGSU history. She is deadlocked for fourth on the doubles victory list, with 73 in her Falcon tenure, and her total of 141 overall wins ties her for sixth all-time at BGSU. Her overall career record is 141-97.
Chiricosta, in just her second season as a Falcon, is just two wins away from cracking the school's top-25 list for overall victories. She has a career record of 85-30, including a 42-14 singles mark and a 43-16 doubles ledger.
The All-MAC First Team consisted of two Miami players, Monica Gorny and Anastasia Dracheva, along with Akron's Zara Harutyunyan, Buffalo's Denise Harijanto, Toledo's Maha Guirguis and Western Michigan's Kerstin Pahl.
Chiricosta and Jakupcin were joined on the second team by Akron's Anya Baronayte, the UB duo of Smaranda Stan and Diana Popescu and Western Michigan's Emily Dudzik.
Harutyunyan was named the MAC Player of the Year, while Gorny was the MAC Freshman of the Year. Miami's Howard Joffe won the Coach-of-the-Year award, while Western Michigan's Ashley Moccia picked up the Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award. Voted on by the student athletes, the latter award is presented to the player who has displayed outstanding sportsmanship in MAC competition. The other specialty award are the results of voting by the league's nine head coaches.
The Falcons head into the MAC Championships with a record of 12-6 in dual-match play, and head coach Penny Dean's team finished the regular season with a 5-3 MAC record. The Falcons, the fourth seed for the nine-team conference tourney, will meet the fifth-seeded University of Toledo in Friday's (April 24) quarterfinal round. That match will begin at 10:00 a.m. at Keefe Auxiliary Courts (behind the BGSU Ice Arena).
2009 ALL-MAC TEAM
First Team
Zara Harutyunyan, Akron
Denise Harijanto, Buffalo
Monica Gorny, Miami
Anastasia Dracheva, Miami
Maha Guirguis, Toledo
Kerstin Pahl, Western Michigan
Second Team
Anya Baronayte, Akron
Christine Chiricosta, Bowling Green
Kelsey Jakupcin, Bowling Green
Smaranda Stan, Buffalo
Diana Popescu, Buffalo
Emily Dudzik, Western Michigan
INDIVIDUAL AWARD WINNERS
COACH OF THE YEAR: Howard Joffe, Miami
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Monica Gorny, Miami
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Zara Harutyunyan, Akron
LEANN GRIMES DAVIDGE SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD: Ashley Moccia, Western Michigan
